By Connor Hart


Shares of cryptocurrency-related stocks rose Friday after the industry cleared a major milestone in Washington on Thursday, as Congress cleared legislation outlining federal rules for stablecoins and establishing a clear regulatory framework for digital assets.

The bills are likely to open the doors to widespread adoption, investment and innovation in the sector, analysts and industry experts said.

The stablecoin bill, known as the Genius Act, is expected to be signed into law on Friday by President Trump, who has promised to make it the first major piece of crypto legislation signed into law in the U.S.

The act will establish federal oversight of stablecoins, a popular crypto asset typically pegged to a government currency such as the U.S. dollar. That peg keeps their price steady, making them attractive to traders looking for a store of value while they buy and sell more volatile cryptocurrencies. The stablecoin market, currently valued at around $240 billion, is projected to grow significantly in the coming years, with high-end estimates at $1 trillion and higher, analysts said.

House lawmakers on Thursday also passed the Clarity Act, which aims to set rules for when a digital asset is considered a security, to be overseen by the Securities and Exchange Commission, as opposed to when it is considered a commodity that is overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The legislation will now be sent to the Senate.

Crypto assets rose in premarket trading as a result.

Trading platforms Coinbase Global and Robinhood rose 2.2%, to $419.95, and 3.4%, to $108.97, respectively. Shares of Block, which earlier this year said it will launch bitcoin payments on Square, rose 1.5% to $71.81.

Circle, the largest U.S. stablecoin issuer, climbed 2.3%, to $240.54.

Shares of Bit Digital--which said last month it will transition to a pure play Ethereum staking and treasury company, planning to sell or wind-down its bitcoin mining operations--rose 4.5% to $4.19.


Write to Connor Hart at connor.hart@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

07-18-25 0930ET